Festa della Repubblica

Every year on June 2 Rome, Italy holds a parade to celebrate the founding of Italian Republic. The parade took place up and down Via dei Fori Imperiali lining the streets with onlookers and government officials. All armed forces, police forces, fire brigade, and the Italian Red Cross all march down this long street for recognition and to celebrate.

The parade started off with the recognition of the President of Italian Republic,Giorgio Napolitano, who was driven down Via dei Fori Imperiali with cheers echoing down the street. I got the opportunity to experience this national holiday with the Roman people and it was great. Everyone was anxiously awaiting the start of the parade, which ended up being around 9:45 am. The streets were crowded with people watching as all the men and women in different forces marched down the street. In the moment of this parade, I could tell by the cheers and excitement from the crowd how proud the citizens were of their country as I am of mine.

Above are some picture I was able to take at the parade. The first one at the top left was a picture of the ongoing armed forces that stretched around to the other side of the Colosseum. The top right photograph is a picture of the military men and women marching and the last picture is a photograph of President Giorgio Napolitano being escorted in the car with security surrounding him.



Links:

"The “Festa della Repubblica” is the Italian national holiday." Welcome to Italian Week 2009 in Brisbane - THE ITALIAN FESTIVAL. 02 June 2009 .

"Giorgio Napolitano - biography." Presidenza della Repubblica. 02 June 2009 .